Topics: Barbie, Margot Robbie, Parenting, Reddit, Social media, TV And Film
A man has questioned who's in the wrong after he refused to swap cinema seats so a mother could sit with her daughter to watch Barbie.
Ah, the good old seat swap drama. Whether it's on an airplane or at the cinema, the decision of whether to agree to swapping seats with someone so they can sit with their friend, partner or child is a contentious one.
A 22-year-old man went to see Greta Gerwig's recent release - starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling - on Friday, 4 August, having pre-booked seats in advance for him and his girlfriend in the middle row.
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However, when he got to the cinema, a woman and her daughter were already sat in the seats and the conversation which followed was pretty awkward to say the least.
Taking to the infamous Reddit thread 'Am I the A**hole?' the 22-year-old explained upon finding a woman and her 'about five or six-year-old' daughter in his seats, he let the mum know he'd pre-booked them and 'even showed her the tickets'.
He explains: "[The mum] said when she purchased her tickets they only had two seats available, one in the front row and another in the far back.
"She said she wanted to sit next to her daughter and she didn’t want her sitting that far away from her so she asked if my girlfriend and I could swap seats."
The 22-year-old man turned around and 'politely' asked the mum and her daughter to 'get up,' noting it 'wasn't [his] problem' they weren't able to sit together and reiterating he 'paid for those seats'.
Alas, this didn't go down well at all with the mum.
"The woman said she understood I paid for the seats but I didn’t have to be rude and inconsiderate," he recalls.
And luckily for the Reddit user - or unluckily, depending on how you look at it - another cinemagoer overheard the conversation and offered to swap seats with the mum and daughter instead.
But, the drama wasn't over yet.
After being immersed in Barbie Land for one hour and 54 minutes, the 22-year-old was swiftly brought back into reality when his girlfriend turned round to him as they left the cinema to say she 'felt bad' for the mum and daughter.
"[She said] giving up our seats would’ve been the right thing to do and I was being a bit inconsiderate," he adds.
The post concludes: "At first I didn’t think I did anything wrong, I paid for those seats and the woman purchased the tickets knowing she wouldn’t be able to sit with her daughter.
"Now I’m starting to feel a little bad because of what my girlfriend and the woman said. AITA?"
Fortunately for the man, most other users have been united in their decision he is not, in fact, the a**hole in this situation.
One Reddit user said: "NTA the woman should have chose a different movie time instead of assuming people would move for her.
"She was being inconsiderate to her own daughter in the situation no one would move."
Another called the mum's move 'manipulative' and apologised to the 22-year-old that the woman's 'manipulativeness worked on [his] girlfriend'.
A third stated it's 'all on the mother', saying: "She was fully aware of the seating chart when she bought the tickets - she should have done better.
"Good on you for standing up for yourself."
And a final resolved: "NTA. I am a parent. If I can’t find seats together, I don’t buy the tickets.
"This applies to plane tickets, movie tickets, live theater tickets. Her lack of planning should not be your problem. "
